PCT application PCT/IL02/00190 of NDS Ltd., published in the English language as WO 02/075596 on 26 Sep. 2002, and corresponding U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/469,487 of Sterkin et al., published on 29 Jul. 2004 as US 2004/0148637, describes a method for accessing at least one literal data item in a hierarchical structure, the method including receiving a request to access at least one literal data item, and accessing the at least one literal data item, at least in part, by choosing and using an access method chosen from the following group: local storage access, back channel access, and data carousel access. The disclosures of WO 02/075596 and corresponding US 2004/0148637 are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
PCT application PCT/US00/23868 of Ismail et al., published in the English language as WO 01/17250, describes a system residing preferably in a television set-top box, wherein the system monitors the television watching habits of one or more viewers and creates one or more profiles for each viewers descriptive of various characteristics of each viewers, including television watching preferences and demographics. The set-top box is able to select among various available video programming segments to create customized and/or targeted video programs for delivery to the viewer of viewers as a linear program. The customized linear video programs may include targeted content, advertising, and other video programming.
PCT application PCT/US2005/024854 of SBC Knowledge Ventures L.P., published in the English language as WO 2006/019819, describes a method of pre-caching video content is provided and includes measuring an available bandwidth of a data connection to a set top box. The available bandwidth measurement can be an average available bandwidth of the data connection to the set top box or a minimum available bandwidth of the data connection to the set top box. Each of a plurality of video files is divided into a first portion and a second portion and the size of each first portion is based on the available bandwidth measurement. The first portion of each of the plurality of video files is downloaded over the data connection and stored in a memory within the set top box. A list is displayed at a display device and includes a list of video titles that correspond to the plurality of video files that have only a first portion downloaded to the memory.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/877,718 of Wilson et al., published in the English language as US 2002/0049968, describes a method and apparatus for delivering targeted assets to subscribers using communication media, wherein each subscriber has a set top box, the method comprising the steps of generating a profile of each subscriber at the set top box associated with the respective subscriber, broadcasting an asset to all subscribers along with target information; and delivering the asset only to subscribers whose profiles match the target information. The delivery of the asset, and accumulated information from delivery of the asset to other subscribers, is reported to a user using an asset delivery notification, without identifying the subscriber to the user. A privacy manager is used to strip identification information from the asset delivery notification. The profile, which may include real time information, for example on whether the subscriber set is on and what it is tuned to, is generated by monitoring the viewing habits of the subscriber and storing the information at a set top box.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/247,739 of Bennett et al., published in the English language as US 2006/0026302, describes a media server component operative to serve media programs to a plurality of client media players across a distribution network taking into consideration available data transfer rate and media player characteristics. The media programs are served adaptively, considering screen size, refresh rate required, frame rate, audio format, user preferences at the recipient media player's end (such as region of interest adaptation, resizing of the windows, or desired quality of display) and estimated available data transfer rate. The media server component responds to the channel conditions (such as available data transfer rate), recipient media audio and video characteristics and the user preferences at the recipient device's end in real time, by either delivering a stored program or transcoding the stored program in real time. The media server components, when incorporated into many different media players that process video signals, deliver media programs adaptively to the client devices. The media server component in the set top box allows multiple users to receive media programs or television broadcasts adaptively meeting the player display characteristics of the recipient devices of the users.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,853 to Ouchiyama et al., describes a method and device for picture display capable of performing suitable picture display corresponding to various video signals. Kind of an input video signal is determined based on prestored characteristic information on video signals, and the input video signal is displayed in a picture according to the characteristic information based on the above determined result, so that a suitable displayed picture can be obtained corresponding to the input video signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,639 to MacInnis, describes a system for downloading different versions of software or data modules into a plurality of terminals having different compatibility interfaces includes an authoring component for generating the different module versions, a downloading source including a descriptor table which associates each module version with a list of compatibility requirements needed to download the module, and a plurality of terminals coupled to the downloading source. The downloading source transmits the descriptor table to each terminal and also continuously transmits the modules over the network. Each terminal extracts the descriptor table and, based on a match between an entry in the descriptor table and an internally stored table determines which version of a particular module should be downloaded. The system avoids the need for two-way communication between each terminal and the downloading source.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,374 to Del Sordo et al., describes a method and system to identify programming code that is appropriate to the architecture and capabilities of a set-top terminal in a cable television system. The appropriate programming code is identified from among a variety of code objects being broadcast from the headend facility of the cable television system. A platform identifier stored in the set-top terminal is matched to a corresponding platform identifier in an entitlement management message or other download locator message that specifies where in the transport stream from the headend a particular code object can be acquired. By acquiring the object corresponding to the message bearing a matching platform identifier, the set-top terminal acquires programming code compatible with its attributes. Additionally, the cable television system can then optimally support a varied population of set-top terminals
Standards that are relevant to understanding the state of the art include the following published standards:
ETS 300 468, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) Specification for Service Information(SI) in DVB Systems; 
ETR 162, Digital broadcasting systems for television, sound and data services; Allocation of Service Information (SI) codes for Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) systems; 
ETR 211, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Guidelines on Implementation and Usage of Service Information (SI);
XML Schema Part 1: Structure, www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xmlschema-1-20010502/;
XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes, www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xmlschema-2-20010502/; and
XML Path Language (XPath) Version 1.0, www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116.
The disclosures of all references mentioned above and throughout the present specification, as well as the disclosures of all references mentioned in those references, are hereby incorporated herein by reference.